War has now been declared, the main army is already being gathered at the border and they will be moving once reinforcements arrive from the central continent and the Esha continent. We will be accompanying the empire's reinforcements and will join the main army only once the full military force of Hoss and its allies is gathered.

So, since the army is not ready yet, we have some time to play around in Hoss. We have finally been granted permission to go into the city, although we have to wear an illusory mask, a magical tool to hide our identities, so today I finally gathered the courage to do some research on the field and examine Hoss' culture.

The mask only changed my face so I also wore a cape with the hood pulled up to conceal my hair. I walked over the two walls and arrived in the part of the city between the first and second wall, where the commoners resided. I didn't want to do research in the internal city in fear that someone might see through my mask with magic, but I didn't want to go as far as going in the slums.

It was morning, most people were still working and the streets were near empty. The workday in Hoss started when the sun rose and ended when the sun went down, the best times for talking to people were at noon and in the early evening when people crowded the taverns around the town. But there was something other of Hoss' culture I had to research before directly talking to people, and it was best to do it while there were fewer people around.

I went in front of a pretty big building, a three-floor stone building adorned with various coloured stripes and a red rose painted on the sign, underneath there was written “The Desert Rose”.

I thought there would be no one, but I could see a gentleman entering while saluting a fancy-dressed girl outside the entrance.

This was none other than the place of cultural exchange also known as brothel. This one was one of the few brothels inside the walls. The internal part of the city didn't have any, there were only high-class prostitutes that could be found only by word of mouth, the only brothels inside tolerated inside the walls were in this zone, near the last wall.

I wanted to go to a place like this since I was transported here, but now that I had the permission to go around the city I could finally do it. It was best to get some experience with a prostitute before doing it with any other girl, like this I would appear experienced and avoid any embarrassment when I would do it with someone I liked.

Soooo....... now I should enter, I guess......

I kept remaining still while looking at it from outside.

'Ok David, you can do it.'

I moved my feet while looking down when....

“Ouch.”

I rammed into someone, I felt my hood falling off.

“Sorry.”

I raised my face and saw the fallen hood and the long blonde hair tied in a ponytail it previously hid, and a face I knew.

When we were given the masks we were all together and since we tried them on, we knew each other's disguises, because of that I could recognize the person in front of me.

“Mark?”

“David?”

'Well, that's awkward.'

We looked at each other without saying anything.

“........”

“........”

He was the first one to speak.

“So, you're sightseeing the city too?”

“Ah, yes, I wanted to understand better Hoss' culture so I wanted to go around and talk to people.”

“Ahaha, I see, I was doing that too.”

“Haha, right?”

We were both too ashamed to speak out the hard truth, anyway, now that we met each other, it would be a bit embarrassing to enter the brothel together, so I guessed I should have headed back.

We both looked at the brothel and then looked at each other again.

“Anyway, I planned to go into one of the taverns and talk to people there, do you know a good one.”

I said.

“Uh, no.....”

A few more seconds of silence went by.

“Anyway, I think I should head too.....”

“Sorry, are you two gentlemen together?”

I turned my head, the girl that was acting as a doorkeeper approached us, I guessed her job was also to attract customers.

“We always give a little discount to people who bring friends, and since you both are new here I'll make sure to give you the best girls, I'm sure the girls will be eager of serving two young and handsome men such as you.”

'A discount...'

I looked at the ground, it would be a real pity to give up after coming all the way here and being offered a discount by the doorkeeper. A real man needed to do what he needed to do.

I looked at Mark, his expression was one of determination, the one of a warrior ready to fight, just like mine. I nodded to him, and he nodded back.

I opened my mouth and heard a voice coming from behind me.

“Oh, it's David and Mark, what are you two doing here?”

We froze up.

Oliver and Erian were behind us, pushing a cart with barrels on it.

“Uh....”

“Hahaha......we..... uh.......”

We looked at each other. Then we looked at them again with nervous smiles.

“We were asking people where to find a good tavern.”

“We were asking her to use the brothel's bathroom.”

We spoke at the same time, then we looked at each other again, the enemy cornered us and our expressions were the ones of rats in the corner.

Erian looked at the woman behind us and then at the building in the background.

“A brothel uh.......”

Oliver was looking away with his cheeks completely red while fidgeting with his fingers, he was adorabl-...... I mean, he was clearly suspecting us. I had to resolve the situation on my own, I wore the best straight face I could muster and said:

“Yes, Mark needed to go the bathroom, we want to go to a tavern to drink after that so I wanted to ask her both.”

I turned to the woman, swiftly took out a couple of coins from my pouch without looking, and handed them to the woman while using my body to hide my hand.

“Right?”

The woman understood right away, took the coins, smiled innocently at Erian and Oliver, and said:

“I'm afraid I can't let you use the bathroom since you're not customers, but I can tell you where a good tavern is, just head there and enter the second tavern on the right.”

'Good job miss prostitute.'

I thanked the woman in my head and then said:

“W-well, you'll have to resist Mark, but at least we found a tavern.”

“Right, hahaha, we can go to the tavern now hahaha.”

Mark was very bad at lying.

Oliver and Erian were looking at us with a flat gaze.

Mark tried to change the topic.

“A-anyway, what are you doing with that cart? Distributing food again?”

Erian answered.

“Yes, we're going to the slums, We'll give food to the poor and I'll also give free healing. I would have asked you if you wanted to help, but I guess you're busy.”

She looked at the brothel.

“Uh.... actually, we can drink later, I would also like to help, do you want to come too, David?”

'You traitor, Why are you pulling me into this now?'

“Uh I have something else to do in the slums, I can accompany you but I can't stay.”

“What do you have to do?”

“Lae asked me to deliver a letter to her friends.”

Lae wasn't allowed to go out since Hoss was worried she would spill the milk about us heroes and how she was almost killed by Ron.

“Great, it won't take much, I'll accompany you there, then we can return to the others and help them out.”

'What is this idiot doing?'

“I...”

“Come on, you don't have anything better to do anyway, right?”

I sighed I wasn't in the mood to go to a brothel anymore anyway, so I might as well help them since it was a good way to gain information, I was sure people would be eager to talk once their stomachs were full.

“Alright alright, I'll help.”

Erian looked at me with a surprised expression and Mark said:

“Good choice, I'm sure you'll have fun, I swear helping people makes you feel good, you might also get some friends as well.”

I looked regretfully at the place of culture that was the Desert Rose and then we started to walk towards the slums.

As we got out of the walls the building started to be prevalently made of wood instead of stone and more and more demi-humans could be seen on the streets.

While Erian and Oliver went straight on the main road after telling us where to find them, we took a minor road on the left. We walked for about fifteen minutes while following Lae's indications. The slums weren't too big in length, but since they surrounded the whole wall they were quite big.

After a bit we arrived at a big wooden building, there was no one at the door and there wasn't any decoration on the outside, just a small sign with a sun on it. But still, it was bigger and better kept than most of the buildings around here, and quite a few people were loitering outside while smoking and chatting.

We entered the building and were welcomed by the smell of burned Rati, an herb native of Vos, it had light medical effects but it would become a light drug if smoked while having no lung injury, it caused addiction but at least it didn't damage health; it was still quite expensive though, it seemed this wasn't a cheap brothel.

A burly man looked at us, and after noticing our good clothes he let us in. It seemed the controls weren't too strict, the guards didn't crack down on these places at all, after all, they probably were worried only about people entering without being able to pay.

We noticed right away that this wasn't just a brothel, there were also many tables with many gambling games on them, there were card games, dice games, and roulettes. I could see a small stage in which three girls and two boys were dancing with see-through clothes and there were boys and girls, mostly demi-humans, walking around, serving drinks, and entertaining the customers. I felt no lust towards those girls though, I knew some of them at first didn't come here by their own choice, after all, looking at them just made me angry.

This place's name was The Rising Sun, and most customers just called it “The House” but Rusty Cage would have fit it better this place was just a disgusting prison, both for the customers and the people working here. The ones who created this place must have been real animals.

I reached out to one of the girls walking around in revealing dresses and told her I had a letter for them from Lae.

The girl, a blond cat-kin, perked up her cat ears and grabbed my arm.

“Lae wrote to us!? Is she fine? Why couldn't she come herself?”

The girl seemed a bit worried. Well, it was understandable.

“She works at the citadel now, new maids can't get out of there until a full background check is carried, but since her parents are dead and all her brothers are in Heian she may not be able to go out any time soon. Still, I'll make sure to deliver messages between you and her as much as I can, it's the least I can do as her master.”

I knew she probably would never be able to see them, but she didn't need to know that.

The girl relaxed a little and, without letting my arm go, she said:

“Wow, she works for you at the citadel....... how lucky. Come to the back with me sir master, I'm sure everyone wants to ask you some questions.”

She started to pull my arm.

“Wait, I don't think I should be there.”

“Come on, it's fine, I want to know the relationship between you two. Come on, we'll offer you something to drink, it's on the house.”

“Come on David, they just want to know about their friend.”

I sighed and let her pull me in the backstage.

We passed from the fancy main hall into a shabby corridor, into a room where four girls and three boys were taking a break. Prostitution here was a bit different from our world's, here women had the same status as men since the difference in military power, the universal value to measure one's social worth, was filled very soon in the case of warriors and was the same in the case of mages. People without a proper instruction was better at using ki rather than mana, and low-tier men warrior still had a slight advantage over women, women had to spend all the money they could on equipment to compensate and they couldn't afford places like this. This brothel was aimed at people with a medium-low tier of strength, so, this place had a bit more girls than boys, but usually, the women-men ratio was equal.

“Guys we have news of Lae, she sent a letter this man is her new master and can tell us about her.”

The girls and boys shot up and surrounded me, they started asking questions about Lae's new life and I answered as best as I could while paying attention not to reveal anything that could get me in trouble.

In the meanwhile the girls rubbed themselves on me and sent me flirtatious looks, I guess I looked like a good party for them.

After a while, they started asking questions about my relationship with Lae and I told them we weren't in any physical relationship, they didn't believe me. As Mark was trying not to laugh at me getting flustered by their very direct questions, another girl entered the room.

It was a dog-kin girl with red hair, a bruise on her cheek, and signs of whipping on her shoulders. Her body seemed quite battered, but her expression was firm.

The blonde cat girl addressed her.

“Hey Roxanne, guess what? Lae sent us a letter, she's now working as a maid in the citadel for this man. He was telling us about her just now.”

Roxanne was about to say something, but she was interrupted by Mark.

“What are those wounds? Are you fine? Is someone tormenting you?”

He said with an urgent tone.

Roxanne seemed hesitant to reply so the blonde girl cut in.

“She is quite in the need of money so she accepted to take care of the customers with particular tastes.”

While the blonde girl spoke, she didn't lower her face at all.

Mark walked on her and grabbed her by the shoulders.

“Turn around, I'm going to heal you.”

“You can use healing magic?”

“No just holy and life magic, but life magic will be enough for something like that.”

“Ah there's no need to, those wounds aren't as bad as they seem.

The girl seemed reluctant to accept help.

“No no, let me do it.”

The girl tried to get away from Mark's grasp but he had no problems restricting her with his strength and forcefully healed her.

Differently from the healing attribute and the holy attribute, the life attribute's healing spells just accelerated the natural regeneration and could leave scars, while the holy attribute could regenerate any kind of wound if one used enough mana, but it was quite expensive, and the healing attribute instead did everything the holy attribute did but for less mana, faster, and it had many different healing spells.

Roxanne couldn't get out of Mark's grasp and resigned herself to be healed.

The prostitutes looked fascinated at the wounds healing in front of them and soon after he finished, they surrounded Mark instead of me and started pestering him.

I gladly let them do and talked a bit with Roxanne, telling her how Lae was doing.

She was an interesting girl, she always looked me in the eyes and showed no sign of reverence towards me even though I was acting like an adventurer of the citadel, she didn't try to flatter me or flirt with me as the others did. Usually, a girl like her would have scared me a little, but knowing how strong I was now, compared to a normal person, made me feel much safer around girls like her. She still made me a little nervous though, but I knew I would need to surpass this weakness if I wanted to become strong, I needed to become even more powerful so that I wouldn't fear anyone anymore.

I used my blessing on her out of curiosity.

What I saw was a lioness with a red mane inside a big cave, she was looking towards the exit, but ropes were binding her. The ropes she was tied to were tied to huge rocks on a slope, and down that slope, there were two old lions and a young lioness.

The red lioness was looking longingly at the exit but she couldn't tie her ropes, or the other lions would be crushed, so she moved restlessly on the spot, sometimes looking with rage at the rocks, and sometimes, looking at the other lions with mixed feeling in her eyes. I saw hate, love, rage, tenderness, she seemed to be very troubled about her feelings for the other lions.

I returned to normality. What I saw interested me, she probably was doing all that for someone else, probably her family. She probably incurred some kind of debt, but I doubted the rocks represented only that, usually the things represented in my visions weren't as simple as that.

She seemed strong, reliable, and sacrificed herself for others, she would have been a nice ally, too bad I didn't have time to train her from zero.

After I finished talking to her I meet the gaze of Mark and said:

“We did all we had to do, we should be going now.”

Mark nodded to me and got out of the encirclement.

Roxanne then said:

“Wait, the guard could get suspicious if he saw you get out of the backstage, I'll accompany you, I just finished anyway, just let me change my clothes.

She then started stripping hurriedly in front of us.

I and Mark looked away.........most of the time.

She finished changing into normal clothes and then we went outside together.

We had no problems getting out, and after getting out, Mark asked her:

“Hey Roxanne, is rubbing against people some kind of tradition in the east? Everyone was rubbing themselves against me, one way or another.”

Roxanne looked at him with a perplexed expression. I cut in.

“Sorry, He's a little bit dense. They were flirting with you, they were trying to get in your favour since you're from the citadel.”

Mark opened his eyes wide.

“Oh, so that's how it was.”

“Mph.”

Roxanne laughed a little. Mark seemed a little dejected.

“Is that lame?”

“Oh, no, sorry, I think that's cute, I'm just not used to it.”

“Oh, I see.”

Mark blushed a little.

'Oh, has our hero found her damsel in distress?'

We walked together for a little while, then Roxanne took another direction and after saying goodbye, we parted ways.

Soon after I heard something with my enhanced ears and concentrated more demonic ki into them.

“I said I can't go there, I need to attend to my family here.”

“You have no chance if you want to repay your debt. There is huge profit to be made by serving the soldiers during a war, we want some of our girls to go and you have been chosen, so you will go, no questions asked.”

I spoke to Mark.

“Mark, enhance your ears.”

He did and soon showed worry on his face.

“We have to help her.”

“Right, we have.”

A while ago I wouldn't have bothered myself with this kind of thing, but now that I had the power to do so, why not? I also wanted to swing my punches against someone, after all, it's been a while since the last fight I had.

I activated my fire enhancement and run into the alley Roxanne was in with Mark.

Mark stopped and said:

“Let her be, she said she doesn't want to go.”

I didn't stop though and jumped on the thugs before Mark finished spelling his sentence.

I enhanced myself with hellflame ki and took out the man in front of me with a single punch to the face.

I then turned to the next enemy and attacked him, he barely had the time to raise his guard and he managed to block a few hits thanks to his water ki, but I was too much for him and after kicking his leg he fell.

A woman then tried to attack me from behind with a knife but I just threw an illusory vamp of flames near her and she stopped on her feet.

I then started to punch the man underneath me, I made sure not to kill him and to just make him faint. He was quite young, he probably wasn't much older than me, but that didn't stop me from making a mess out of his face.

In the meanwhile, the woman tried to hit me with a wind blade, a basic wind spell, but I just covered my back in dark mana and blocked with just that, she was too weak for me.

I then got up and looked at the woman, her face turned into an expression of terror, she started to run away and I started chasing her.

“David stop!”

I stopped and looked at Mark, he had Roxanne in his arms and another thug was at his feet.

“We already defeated them, there's no need to go further than that.”

Mark looked at me with a vexed expression.

“By the way, this guy was about to kidnap Roxanne, if I wasn't here you wouldn't have saved her. You should be more careful.”

Actually, I didn't really care about saving her in the first place. I came here just to beat up those guys, I didn't like the idea of her suffering for no reason, but saving her was just a plus over crushing those guys.

“I was counting on you on that.”

He showed a surprised expression.

“Oh, sorry then.”

He smiled and continued.

“It's nice that you rely on me.”

He then looked at Roxanne.

She was lying defenceless in his arms, but when their eyes met, she hurriedly got on her feet again and said.

“Thank you for that, they wanted to send me among the prostitutes following the army even though they know my family is here. Well, they'll manage to do it anyway once you return to the citadel, but at least I'm happy they had to sweat for that. Now we should go somewhere else, you made quite a ruckus.”

“Oh right.”

We walked a little through the alleys guided by Roxanne.

We then arrived in a deserted alley a bit away from where we fought.

Roxanne then bowed to us and said.

“Thank you very much for your help, I appreciate it, but I'm afraid I can't do anything more than give you this, it may not be much to you, but it's everything I can give you.”

She took out a small pouch and tried to give it to us.

Mark didn't take it and said:

“No, we can't take it, you need it more than we do.”

“I know it, but I can't accept your favour without giving out anything in return.”

“No really, we didn't really change anything in the first place anyway.”

“Please take it, do it for my pride.”

she then walked out to Mark and tried to put the pouch in his hands, Mark moved his hands and they began a strange game of catch with Mark's hands, of course, she had little chance against Mark.

“I've got an idea. We will participate in the war too so why don't you repay us with joining our party, I can teach you some basic techniques to protect yourself.”

'Here he goes, I guess the protagonist wants to start building his harem. Well, the protagonist is going to be me, but why not help him enjoy himself?'

I just thought of how to convince her to join us, lately, I've also been worried for Lae, I wasn't good at giving her human warmth and she was hesitant to befriend the others due to her social standing. I was sure a friend would really help her. I would be happy if I saw her smile more.

“Learn to fight......”

Her gaze became very intense, I guess she wanted to learn how to fight. But she then bit her lip and said:

“Sorry, I can't, if I leave them they'll hurt my family, please just take the money.”

Mark seemed troubled by what to do.

“Mark, do you want this girl?”

Mark looked at me dumbfounded.

“Uh, yes, I guess.”

I smiled.

“Then take off your mask.”

I took off my mask too, Mark followed through after seeing me do it.

Roxanne opened her eyes wide open, I guess she watched us at the announcement.

“Now listen carefully, Roxanne. We are always being watched by someone keeping tabs on us, and they don't like people out of their control to enter in contact with us, they wouldn't want their heroes to be known frequenting brothels, so you'll be killed off if you don't accept Mark's offer that is.”

They both froze.

“David, uh, that's a little.....”

“You, what.... but my family........”

“We will make sure your debt is paid and they receive a nice sum of money. And you do not need to worry for your safety, if they allowed me to keep Lae after crushing the balls of an empire's man they will allow their favourite boy to keep a girl too. You will receive food, equipment and maybe they will also let you kill off some wounded. So what do you choose, us or death?”

She looked at me with rage in her eyes, but then calmed herself and said:

“I guess I have no choice then, but although I don't like being forced I don't want to receive all that for free, let me work as a maid for Mark, as Lae does for you, for now, I can only do menial work and offer you my body but that's the only way I can repay you.”

“We have a pact then.”

“Hahah, all is well that ends well, I guess.”

Mark looked at me with a reproaching look and then looked at Roxanne.

“You don't have to worry about that, I don't want you to feel forced to have sex with me.”

“Well, I don't mind either way so feel free to ask.”

I saw Mark's face becoming uncertain, he was probably interested, there was something in Roxanne's appearance that gave me a bad feeling though.

“Roxanne, how old are you?”

I asked

“Seventeen.”

Mark fell on his knees.

“What happened to him?”

“Don't worry, you just think about what you have to do before coming with us.”

I then gave a pat of solidarity to Mark. I had been in his situation before, I knew how it felt.

“Now I have to tell my family that I'll be away for a while.”

“Mark, accompany her, I think one of us should stay with her until we tell this thing to Alua. I'll go ahead.”

I walked away before he could ask me to accompany her too.

“Uh, okay.”

I wanted some time on my own, I just had been in a crowded place full of people asking me questions and just had a fight, I needed some time alone to take a breath.

I walked the streets alone, looking around at the people around me, the gazes they sent me were irritating, but my strength made me feel safe.

I then spotted a stray dog on a side of the road, it seemed quite young and skinny, he seemed very lonely.

I looked around, I saw a bakery selling bread not too far away. I went there to buy some freshly baked bread and gave it to the dog.

It seemed a little on edge at the beginning, but then it accepted my bread, I also managed to pet it.

Petting him felt very good, the dog was probably feeling a little less lonely now.

I remained with him until it finished eating so that anyone wouldn't steal his bread, I was sure the people were looking at him with malicious eyes, ready to steal what was his.

I reluctantly parted ways with the dog, it pained me seeing it so lonely, but I could do nothing about it, he may remain lonely forever, but he will get used to it, one day; one day he may become strong enough to never suffer again.

I walked away, I could hear noise around me, but the sound of my own steps was the only thing I was listening to.